Movie review: "Crazy Stupid" is good, not great

Ryan Gosling is ripped, randy and risible in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” an ensemble romantic farce that has the “serious” actor let his funny flag fly.

Yeah, it’s a Steve Carell comedy, sort of the dark, divorcing sequel to “Date Night.” But Gosling, Emma Stone and Marisa Tomei make this film from the directing duo who gave us “I Love You Phillip Morris” work. Most of the time.

Carell is Cal, a slovenly bore who thinks a polo shirt and sports jacket over rumpled khakis and cross-training shoes is appropriate date-night attire. He’s stopped trying. And Emily (Julianne Moore) has noticed. She dumps him in a crowded restaurant.

Hannah (Emma Stone) is a young lawyer-to-be, sitting in a bar as her snarky gal pal (Liza Lapira, hilarious) blasts her with “Your life is SO PG-13!”

That’s before Jacob (Gosling) slithers across the room and makes his move. “Hannah, you’re really wearing that dress like you’re doing it a favor.”

All through the movie, we see him approach and alternately charm and insult gorgeous women — too much makeup earns one bombshell the instant nickname “fancy face.” He always finishes with “Let’s get outta here.” And Jacob always finishes.

The third set of characters we follow are the weakest. Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo) has a crush on the family baby sitter, the gawky 17-year-old Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). That’s not going anywhere, though, because Jessica has a crush on Robbie’s dad. Ewwww. It’s not as icky as you might fear, but still, ewwww.

The best scenes come when Jacob takes pity on fellow barfly Cal and teaches him “the game.” He gives Cal a makeover and shows him how to get women’s attention. The first lady Cal has a shot with is the great Marisa Tomei, who amusingly dials it up a few notches here.

The story loses track of Hannah for a long stretch, finds only a couple of laughs with Moore and the office romance that busted up her marriage, and stops cold pretty much any time we focus on the teens.

So “Crazy, Stupid” overreaches. Too many issues are flirted with to be adequately addressed. Too many characters are followed to give everybody his due.

But as a Steve Carell comedy, it works. He plays the victim well, the guy romantically in over his head ever better. Surrounding him with people this funny pays off in big, crude laughs of the kind he hasn’t delivered since he was a “40-Year-Old-Virgin.”

Whatever the other cast members saw in this script, Carell stepping into “Crazy” shows him to be crazy like a fox.

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